Burning Cards
by Emanya
Summary: Two misfit teenagers, a man from New Orleanes and a girl from Bayville.


This is a story that I've had in my mind, the story of a mutant name Kayli Bran. Now that the second season of X-Men: Evolution has started up, I can happily take the characters and twist them around the other characters, since it's a lot more detailed than the first season.

Also, Gambit appears on-and-off in the story, more of a support character for Kayli than the Gambit in the comics (After all, Gambit as a teen must have been a brutal fellow, deadly charm)

It was late nighttime in the city of Bayville in Westchester County, New York State. The streets were almost empty aside from the "night people", as Kayli Bran referred to them. She stuffed her hands into her pockets, hiding the bloody clothes that she had bound her palms in, feeling the dried blood tug at her skin. It had been weeks since she had been to Bayville High, months. She had totally dropped any thoughts of school, of her dreams… all because she was a mutant. She closed her eyes, pale blue orbs of sorrow and pain, and felt the wind run its icy fingers through her red hair, moaning in her ear as if to remind her of her pain.

She cast her gaze towards the ground as she pulled an old wool cap over her head, shivering as she drew the gray men's coat around herself, thinking of her "Days in the sun", before the incident… before it all happened. 

It was then she heard laughter, and looked up, half-panicked. 

Amanda was there. Amanda and that guy Kurt from school. They were both well dressed, as if they were coming back from a dance… or on a date. 

"Or both…" the girl mummered, pulling the collar of her coat up a bit as she passed by. Amanda turned, glancing at her as she passed, then turned back to Kurt, who gave Kayli a strange look… then Amanda turned around again, looking as if she had seen a ghost

"KAYLI!" she cried out, running to catch up with the gray-clad girl. 

"Oh… ah… hi Amanda…" Kayli muttered, turning and backing away. The burns that were on her face hadn't healed yet from her last encounter; she didn't want any of her old friends to see her, not like this. 

"Kayli, where have you been? We're all worried at school, ever since the fire…" 

Kayli turned her head, and Amanda blinked… 

"Jeez, what happened to your face, Kayli?" 

Kurt blinked, puzzled by all this excitement on their date, someone Amanda hadn't seen in school for a while… and the way she was dressed… and a fire?

"N… nothing. It's nothing, Amanda…" the girl said, pulling her collar up higher to avoid their gazes. 

Amanda balked a moment, but she cared for Kayli… she was her friend. 

"Kayli… you can tell me, hey I got an idea, Kurt and I were about to go for ice cream, wanna join us?" 

Kurt gave Amanda an odd look; "Oh well…" he thought "So much for romance…"

"Three's a crowd, 'Manda. I wouldn't want to intrude…" Kayli replied, turning away slightly and taking a step. Amanda grabbed her arm, pulling out the bandage-wrapped hand from Kayli's pocket… Amanda gasped, drawing back.

"Kayli, what's happened to you?" she asked, her eyes wide. Kayli paused… 

"I… I don't know! I don't know… I'm scared Amanda… a frightened, dangerous creature isn't a good thing to hang around with… forget about me…" Kayli began to run, the smell of charred cloth reaching Kurt's nose… 

"Hey… HEY! Wait!" he called out, leaving Amanda behind and running after the fleeing girl. He leapt, tackling the girl who gasped and fell backwards. Her cap and collar fell away from her face, and cropped blonde hair fell around her head wildly. Scars covered her jaw line; ugly, unhealed burn scars… she turned to him with eyes wide with fear as she instinctively held up her hands. Then closed them into fists.

"GET OFF! GET AWAY!" She cried out in fear as she pressed her hands into fists, and the smell of burning flesh now reached Kurt's nose. His eyes watered as he held her down, knowing she could be dangerous to anyone… Amanda and herself included. 

"Look, I'm not TRYING to hurt you!" he cried out loud enough to be heard over Kayli's cries as Amanda looked on.

Kayli gritted her teeth and in a swift, hard motion her knee made contact with Kurt's groin. Kurt's eyes crossed as he fell off, and Kayli ran away, taking a back alley. 

"Kurt!" Amanda screamed kneeling at his side… "I'll… I'll follow her!" she muttered, got up and ran.

"No! A… Amanda!" 

*~*

Kayli ran as fast as she could, turning around corners until she crashed into something that was just standing there… knocking Amanda to the ground.

"Kayli!" Amanda breathed hard "What's wrong?"

Kayli looked into her friend's eyes… then scuttled backwards until her back rested on a wall… then sobbed.

"I… I can't tell you, Amanda… I'm not the Kayli you were friends with!" she mumbled, then stood. Her gray coat parted, showing some sort of uniform…

"It's like the one Kurt wears…" Amanda blinked and stood her eyes wide. Kayli closed the coat, and turned

"I advise you to forget me, 'Manda. I'm… I'm not OK to be around with anymore." She mummered, and giving a warning glance to her friend, she turned and ran again into the darkness. 

Kurt caught up with Amanda as she stood there, an expression of disbelief on her face; the human girl turned to the mutant boy…

"Kurt… I think there's a problem…" 

*~*

__

Two weeks later…

The two sat together in the holding cell. The scars on her face had healed up, and he wore a pair of stylish sunglasses. Both wore trench coats over jeans and T-shirts, under which their protective body armor lay. The young man ran a hand through his auburn hair. 

"Can't believe 'how he botched dis one up, chere." He mumbled, turning to the blonde girl. She glanced up at him… 

"You don't think they'll take us _there_, do you? I don't wanna go back… never again," she asked, as a frightened child. She cradled her broken arm gently, as if it were a young child. Remy glanced at the younger teenager, but the sunglasses hid his eyes from expression. He took off the sunglasses, folding them and slipping them into his pocket. His red eyes looked over Kayli, who had adapted the name of Flameraven. There was concern to be found in his eyes, since she was his partner.

"Dunno, petite. Maybe dey take us, maybe dey not." He answered. The girl shafted her weight, whimpering.

"I'm scared." 

"Dun worry, petite. Gambit gonna take real good care you." he mummered. He glanced toward the guard, who on his desk had a pack of poker cards for playing solitaire… Gambit got a good idea. 

"'Ey! Officer!" he called out, the guard turned, looking at the two in the holding cell. 

"What do you want?" he asked, standing. Gambit held up his hands

"'Ey, all I want is a deck of cards to play poker wi' _mon ami_ here, dat too much to ask?" he inquired innocently. The guard muttered something about teenagers, then tossed the cards into the jail cell. Gambit took the cards out and smiled. "Not playin' wi' a full deck, petite, no?" he smiled as he held the card in his hand, looking at the girl. She moved back against the back wall of the cell, covering her bad arm and face with her trench coat. 

Gambit held the hard in his hand, concentrating a second as he used his mutant power to tap into the card's potential energy. He quickly slipped the card between two bars in the holding cell, and backed away, shielding his face with his trench coat. A single heartbeat later, the cell was simply another hole in the wall, and the two mutants on their way towards freedom. 


End file.
